Dog in the Dark

Chapter Thirteen

On the annex’s upper floor, Brot’ân’duivé felt relieved as he left Léshil and Magiere’s room and they closed their door. His presence among them on this journey was necessary, but at times their company was exhausting. A few moments alone were welcome.

Walking down the hall, he peered inside various doorways. Finally deciding the choice did not matter, he entered the last room along the corridor. It was closest to the head of the stairs, and all of the rooms were equally oversoft and garish with thick quilts and heavy curtains.

Why humans lived with such cumbersome furnishings was beyond him. The life of an anmaglâhk was austere, but even his people chose possessions sparingly. Then he heard a soft click-scratch on the wooden floor outside the room.

He stood silently tracking the sound in his mind and knowing its every movement. From the upper steps of the central stairs to a left turn around the banister’s crest and down the hall, he followed it along the path he had come moments before. A soft scratching was followed by the sound of an opening door.

Returning quietly to crack open his door, Brot’ân’duivé peeked out to confirm Chap’s passage. He watched the tip of the majay-hì’s tail disappear into Léshil and Magiere’s room.

If Chap had come up, where was Leanâlhâm? Perhaps she was still downstairs looking at books.

Brot’ân’duivé debated going after her. He had little experience communicating with adolescent girls, and especially not with an emotionally shattered orphan. Much of the time she left him feeling like an overbearing guardian to be suffered at arm’s length, or perhaps like the less-than-desirable relative whom all families tolerated out of respect.

He did not wish to concern himself with such things, but he did.

Leanâlhâm was important to him, in part because Gleannéohkân’thva had been one of his only friends. He often found himself worrying, wishing to close the gap with the girl at least enough to help her find her place in this world.

Still reluctant, Brot’ân’duivé was on the verge of going to find Leanâlhâm when she came up the steps. She carried a book gripped in both hands, and stopped at the sight of him. Uncertain what to say, he sidestepped, gesturing into the room he had selected.

“Will this serve you? They are all quite similar.”

She stepped closer and looked in at the huge four-poster bed.

“I will sleep on the rug,” he added.

She hesitated for a few breaths. “Greimasg’äh, with so many rooms, perhaps I could have my own during our stay here?”

This had not occurred to him. Perhaps he—and not she—was the one who most viewed him as her constant guardian. He had no objection to her request, but it would be best if she took the next room so he could hear any trouble that might arise.

“Of course,” he said.

“My thanks.”

Her thanking him for such a small thing felt like another shove to maintain their distance. Before she walked off on her own, he went to the next open door and gestured inward as he gripped its handle.

The room had white lace curtains and a slightly yellowed white comforter. The water basin and pitcher depicted lavender-colored roses. He did not see much difference between this room and the others, so, holding the door’s handle, he waited there.

She looked inside, but her expression gave away nothing. He could not tell whether she was pleased or whether, like him, she found the place oversoft and overdecorated.

“I think ... I think I will rest a bit before dinner,” she said.

“Of course.”

She hurried in, and he closed the door before she could touch it. Turning, he reentered his own chosen quarters. He would still sleep on the rug rather than smother in one of these ridiculous beds.

Crossing to the window, Brot’ân’duivé still dwelt on the girl and their increasingly empty but polite interactions. This was partially his fault, but after all she had been through, formalities might be the only anchor she had left. Should she try to tell him how she truly felt, she might open a floodgate that would not close. How would he ever deal with that?

She had always been daunted by his presence when he visited Gleannéohkân’thva in earlier days. Now she had even greater difficulty tolerating his company.

When had that begun?

Gazing out the window at the city, Brot’ân’duivé did not need to ponder for long. It was the day at the enclave, the first time he took Osha away from her....

After only a short time at the central enclave of Coilehkrotall, Brot’ân’duivé became restless. Too many pressing matters, too many unknowns, could not be put off much longer. Every moment he lingered might bring another turn for the worse that he should have anticipated.

Leanâlhâm and Gleannéohkân’thva were in the worst stage of mourning. Somehow Osha’s presence and shared grief were helping to carry them through. Both Gleannéohkân’thva and Cuirin’nên’a had studied the journal in private.

A part of Brot’ân’duivé was now glad they had learned of its existence. Though he was a master of gathering information, the old healer and Léshil’s mother sometimes saw ways to use information that he did not. Until they did, he still had to deal with Osha.

He went to the guest chamber on the tree home’s main floor, tapped twice on the living wood of the archway, and brushed the curtain aside. Cuirin’nên’a, more beautiful than the woman he loved and had lost, sat cross-legged upon a bedding mattress.

There was not much of Eillean in her features, yet she had her mother’s determination for serving the people. If life had been fairer, kinder ... If it had been possible for him to have bonded with Eillean ...

“So he married—bonded—with that woman?” Cuirin’nên’a said quietly.

She was not reading the journal. It simply lay beside her as she stared at the room’s blank, bark-covered wall.

“Yes, Magiere, as you read,” he answered, though it had not truly been a question.

“Is he ... happy, do you think?”

It was not the question of an anmaglâhk but of a mother. All of the caste lived a life of service. This did not change because they and others had chosen a different path against Most Aged Father. Amid a purpose, anmaglâhk could not afford sentiment, though this did not mean they had none.

“For now,” he answered.

“Then he is beyond my ... our reach.”

“For now,” he repeated. “But we cannot afford to wait in present matters. There is another unexpected one.”

The barest crease marred Cuirin’nên’a’s perfect brow.

Brot’ân’duivé dug out the smooth, roundish stone and crouched to hold it out. When Cuirin’nên’a caught sight of it, the crease of her brow vanished. Her eyes widened slightly before turning to him. She could not read its marks, though she knew from where the stone had come.

“A sudden breeze,” he said.

Cuirin’nên’a slowly shook her head. It was so rare to see her baffled by anything as she glanced toward the room’s curtained archway. Osha was not even present inside the tree, let alone in the outer chamber.

“That is what it may say,” she whispered, “but what does it mean ... for Osha?”

“I do not know.”

“Then you have delayed too long. Act quickly!”

Perhaps sentiment and pity were the reasons he had delayed. Perhaps he had needed someone else’s assurance for the cruelty he would display to the few, including her, who meant something to him. Fate was often cruel.

Brot’ân’duivé had barely risen when he heard the home’s front curtain being pulled aside. Low voices rose in the outer area, and he heard his old friend, the healer.

“Set the plates,” Gleannéohkân’thva said, his voice lacking all its normal biting charm. “I’ll find the others.”

This was followed by the sounds of two other steps and the shuffle of plates and then Leanâlhâm’s shaky sigh. It would have been better if Brot’ân’duivé could have caught Osha alone.

“Now!” Cuirin’nên’a whispered.

Along with sentiment, pity had to be banished.

Brot’ân’duivé pulled the chamber curtain aside and stepped out to find Leanâlhâm sitting cross-legged, head down, as Osha spread wooden plates in a circle upon the moss carpet. Although still thin, he looked physically better. His forest gray cloak had been cleaned and mended, and several days of rest and decent meals had improved his color.

Gleannéohkân’thva was halfway up the curving steps along the wall and paused his climb to look down.

“I was about to look for you, but as you ...”

The old healer trailed off as Brot’ân’duivé turned to Osha, now crouched beside Leanâlhâm.

“Our stay is finished,” he said. “We must leave now.”

Osha started in surprise. “It has been only three days. Leanâlhâm is still ... Greimasg’äh, we cannot leave.”

Brot’ân’duivé held out the stone and displayed it in plain sight with his thumb and forefinger.

“This is a summons for you ... from the Chein’âs.”

Osha rose, staring at the stone. “I made my journey to them years past to receive my weapons and tools. Why do you show me this?”

“Because they have called you back.”

“No!” Osha snapped. “They call us once, when the elders of our caste approve an initiate to seek out a jeóin. The stone is a mistake!”

“There are no such mistakes,” lashed a soft voice.

Cuirin’nên’a stood in the chamber archway; one of her hands held the curtain aside as she then stepped out.

“You are summoned,” she added. “This is the way, based on covenants with the Burning Ones, whom we protect along with the Séyilf, the Wind-Blown. This is part of our people’s ways as well. And in keeping them, this is part of what your jeóin died to uphold!”

Brot’ân’duivé clenched his jaw, for this was not the way he would have handled Osha. Years of isolation in imprisonment had hardened Cuirin’nên’a, though all she said was true. Unlike all others, she had borne a burden none of them could match.

Osha and Leanâlhâm were unaware that the other three in this chamber were part of the rumored dissidents. But in all of Cuirin’nên’a’s long years alone, not one rumor had ever been proven and not one dissident had ever been uncovered because of her. She had suffered Most Aged Father’s threats, taunts, and demands, his mental tortures without even being able to put her lost human mate to rest ... until Léshil had come for her.

Cuirin’nên’a had never broken. That Brot’ân’duivé and Gleannéohkân’thva stood here still free was proof enough of this. Many might claim they could do as well as she had. Many would be liars.

Osha fell silent under Cuirin’nên’a’s harsh words. Only then did Brot’ân’duivé give enough notice to the girl—too late.

Leanâlhâm’s grief-strained face was filled with confusion. She sucked in a breath as if to speak. Only a sob came out as she fled, ripping through the curtained archway and out of the tree home. Osha immediately turned to follow, but the old healer blocked his way with a gentle touch.

“You have a purpose,” Gleannéohkân’thva whispered. “This one must be fulfilled.”

Osha stood there, slowly sagging.

“And you will guide me?” he asked, his tone unreadable.

It was obvious to whom he spoke, and Brot’ân’duivé knew the worst was over. The fire caves of the Chein’âs were a long journey away, but Osha was Anmaglâhk, and he would obey.

“Yes,” Brot’ân’duivé said and headed for the outer doorway.

Once outside, he held the curtain back. Osha finally followed, as did Gleannéohkân’thva, but not Cuirin’nên’a. Osha turned all ways, looking about in a sudden return of anguish, but Leanâlhâm was nowhere to be seen.

Brot’ân’duivé’s old friend nodded to him. “When will you return?” the healer asked.

“I do not know.”

At that, Osha cast him a hardened glare before turning to Gleannéohkân’thva.

“I thank your enclave for its kindness and welcome,” he said with a deep nod of respect to the healer. “Tell Leanâlhâm that I ... I will see you both again.”

Osha started to turn away but then froze. At that, Brot’ân’duivé spotted Cuirin’nên’a in the doorway.

As precisely beautiful as any statuette of tawny wood fashioned by the most skilled Shaper, she was equally still and watchful. Osha began to speak, but she cut him off.

“I will watch over them,” she said. “No harm will come to them unless it first passes me.”

With closed eyes, Osha bowed more deeply, as if in gratitude, but when he turned to leave, he would not look at Brot’ân’duivé. He strode off across the village green. Like any who had once been before the Burning Ones, he knew the general direction.

With one last nod to those who remained behind, Brot’ân’duivé took off at a trot, quickly passing Osha. Within moments, they jogged out of the enclave into the wild forests of their land. Then the two of them were alone except for the tiny hummingbirds of mixed colors darting among the large blooms in the underbrush.

Brot’ân’duivé led the way deeper into the forest.

The world shifted to rich hues pulsing in the somber light filtering down through the canopy above. Osha said nothing more for the rest of that day. Brot’ân’duivé did not give this much thought, as it would have accomplished nothing. When dusk began to gather among the trees, something else crept into his awareness, and he slowed.

If the movement of an unseen shadow could be heard, this was the only way he could have described what he felt from behind them.

Now a few steps ahead, Osha slowed to look back. “What?”

Brot’ân’duivé could not answer. When he scanned the forest, he saw nothing, heard nothing, and now felt nothing. Osha looked about, waiting for an answer. Brot’ân’duivé simply turned and ran onward.

That night when they camped, he closed his eyes but did not sleep.

For three days more, they ran deeper into the land, always heading westward and a bit to the south. No matter how far they traveled, the sense of a shadow kept returning to slowly unnerve Brot’ân’duivé. In the early afternoon of the fourth day, he stopped atop the rise of a sharp slope.

“Continue,” he whispered. “I will catch up.”

With a puzzled glance backward, Osha obeyed and jogged onward.

Brot’ân’duivé waited briefly until Osha was beyond sight, and then trotted down the same slope. When the sharp rise cut off his sight of the way they had come, he darted off Osha’s chosen path and into the forest.

He sidled in next to a great maple tree and became as still in mind as in body. The shadows of the forest took him in, and with his thoughts emptied, his senses opened fully as he waited.

The sound of a soft step carried to his ears.

It was little more than what would be made by a leaf falling upon the earth. He saw nothing, though his eyes unconsciously followed that sound up to the trees to the right of the slope’s ridgetop. His senses separated every leaf, twig, blossom, and branch until ...

His awareness fixed on a shadow with no origin. Suddenly it changed and fit in.

Brot’ân’duivé remained hidden in silence and in shadow. Only another greimasg’äh could cause such an uncertainty to his awareness ... to be there and then not, in a shadow. It had moved either in body or thought and betrayed itself for an instant. Brot’ân’duivé stilled his mind and emptied his consciousness before he became the one to be sensed.

“You are here.... I know this ... as much as you know I am.”

That whisper carried among the trees. A form suddenly took shape beside a stand of aspens off to his left. Dressed all in forest gray, this anmaglâhk was broad shouldered and perhaps short for an an’Cróan.

“Urhkarasiférin,” Brot’ân’duivé whispered.

Another greimasg’äh had tracked him. This changed everything.

“Turn back,” he said. “Whatever Most Aged Father has asked of you ... your purpose ends here.”

“What of the book?” Urhkarasiférin returned. “It is all I have come for, nothing more.”

“Then you have come for nothing.”

Still Urhkarasiférin did not move. Neither of them feared the other, and both saw death only as a necessary consequence of service. All that differed was whom they each served first, the people or Most Aged Father.

“Do you have the human sage’s journal?” Urhkarasiférin asked.

It took a fateful blink before Brot’ân’duivé answered. “It belongs to me now.”

That wink of a pause was enough to fail him in his lie. Urhkarasiférin was gone without a sound.

Brot’ân’duivé stood frozen for one breath and then bolted after Osha. He did not even try to move silently, and Osha came to a halt before he caught up. Brot’ân’duivé signaled to him without stopping, and Osha whirled and vanished into the trees before Brot’ân’duivé caught up and took the lead.

He changed directions often, even though he knew it would do no good if Urhkarasiférin still followed. What concerned Brot’ân’duivé more was that the other greimasg’äh might have turned back.

Patchy, lime-colored moss cushioned their footfalls until Brot’ân’duivé finally stopped. He crouched beneath the bright leaves of a squat maple, and Osha dropped beside him.

“We are followed,” he whispered. “I can no longer come with you, and we must act quickly now.”

Osha had been through much in the past moons. The sudden statement that he was being abandoned made him rock backward on his haunches. He braced himself to keep from toppling.

“Greimasg’äh,” he whispered. “Only caste elders know the full way to the Chein’âs.”

Young initiates were blindfolded for part of their journey. Even those given assent by their jeóin did not learn those last steps until many years—if ever—into their life of service.

If Urhkarasiférin was here, then Most Aged Father had sent him. There was no telling what else the mad patriarch had done. And the journal had been left with Cuirin’nên’a ... in Gleannéohkân’thva’s home.

Brot’ân’duivé would have to violate a sacred oath, and he grabbed Osha by the front of his vestment.

“Listen,” he hissed. “You will travel like the wind to the coastline, to where the Branch Mountains, what the humans call the Crown Range, meet the eastern coast at the farthest corner of our territory. There you must find an elder in a coastal enclave and beg a ship to carry you south. Within three days, you will reach a large, empty shore of nothing but gray-tinged sand and seaweed. You will see the granite point of the tallest mountain from the dead center of this beach. Have the ship’s crew drop you there, even if you have to swim.”

“Greimasg’äh!” Osha whispered loudly. “Do not break the covenant!”

“Quiet!” he ordered. “From that beach, travel inland until you reach the base of the foothills. Head onward, looking for the shortest one, like a mountain with its top broken off. As you draw closer, it will be easier for you to see its sheared and ragged top—and the mouth of an old volcanic vent at its crest. Keep your awareness of direction, and in the line between the beach left behind and the broken peak, search along the mountain’s base until you find a stone chute. Follow that to the entrance.”

Osha closed his eyes. “You should not tell me these things.”

“The chute leads to a tunnel,” Brot’ân’duivé went on. “And the tunnel leads to the cavern. From there you will know what to do. When you reach the portal of the Burning Ones’ white metal—”

“No, Greimasg’äh!”

Brot’ân’duivé shook Osha until the young one opened his eyes.

“Touch one of your blades to the portal ... and it will open.”

It was done. Brot’ân’duivé had broken one of the oldest oaths of his caste. In trusting this most inept of all anmaglâhk, he endangered a centuries-old covenant of protection for the last of an ancient race.

Osha shook his head.

“Sgäilsheilleache would have died first,” he whispered. “He did die before breaking any oath. What have you done?”

Instead of empathy or even respect for the young one’s sense of honor, Brot’ân’duivé felt only disdain.

“Sgäilsheilleache was blind,” he said quietly as he rose to full height. “Ignorance to the actions of Most Aged Father is what has ruptured our caste from within ... and my death will not help any of our people. Now get up!”

There was one more thing to be done, for Osha would not reach the coast quickly enough on his own. Brot’ân’duivé looked all around and then walked toward a patch of brighter light in a break among the trees.

“What are you doing?” Osha asked.

“Be silent and follow. Do not speak again until instructed to do so.”

They were far enough from any eyes that should not see what would come next ... what Osha should not see. Brot’ân’duivé reached the edge of the clearing, stopped, and motioned for Osha to halt.

“Stay,” Brot’ân’duivé said, and he stepped out into the clearing.

Closing his eyes, Brot’ân’duivé emptied his consciousness once again, as he would to let shadow take him whole. Here in the light there were no shadows. Amid his emptied mind, he called up one image and held it until it was perfect in his silenced thoughts.

He hoped it would hear him ... hear that pure apparition of its presence held with the shadow that stood amid the light. He lost all awareness, even of the moments that slipped by.

Until a heavy footfall made him open his eyes.

Beyond the clearing’s far side and out among the trees, two branches in a cluster of cedars suddenly moved. They appeared to separate from the others and drift between the trees into view. Below them came a long equine head with two crystalline blue eyes larger than those of a majay-hì. Those eyes fixed on him as the creature’s tall ears independently turned his way.

A deer would have been dainty next to this massive beast, for it was as large as an elk or a tall horse. Silver gray in hue, its coat was long and shaggy, more so around its shoulders and across its broad chest. What had at first appeared to be branches were two curved horns—smooth, without prongs— sprouting high from its head.

Brot’ân’duivé heard Osha’s astonished whisper from behind. “Clhuassas!”

“My thanks,” he murmured, for it had heard his call.

He was about to force Osha to do something else unconscionable.

Clhuassas—the listeners—were among the forest’s oldest sacred ones, like the majay-hì. Desperation pushed Brot’ân’duivé to something others considered a sacrilege. But they did not understand that this was a secret of the Greimasg’äh. Only they could make a sound deep within shadow, within the emptiness of self, that could beg for such help.

Urhkarasiférin’s presence was nowhere nearby as far as Brot’ân’duivé could sense. He needed to leave, and for that Osha must be taken quickly away. Then he heard Osha backstep heavily.

At the crackle of leaves underfoot, the great creature stalled.

Brot’ân’duivé could not risk admonishing Osha again.

The silver-gray clhuassas slowly walked into the clearing. Its coat glowed like threads of silver under sunlight, and its eyes seemed too bright. When it came near enough that Brot’ân’duivé felt its snorting breath upon his face, it lowered its massive head to look him in the eyes.

Brot’ân’duivé put his forehead against the bridge of the sacred one’s nose. He let go of its image, and in the shadowed emptiness of his mind, he envisioned Osha and the coastal destination the young one had to reach.

The beast snorted and stamped its massive hoof once, but it did not buck its head to strike him down. Brot’ân’duivé felt its hot, moist breath as it exhaled on his chin and throat. When he opened his eyes, he was face-to-face—eye to eye—with the listener.

“Osha,” he whispered, “come ... now.”

It was more than three breaths before he heard the young one’s steps. Osha rounded wide to the left, his expression beyond tense.

“What are you doing?” he whispered.

“Climb onto its back,” Brot’ân’duivé ordered.

“No! I will not ride a sacred one like a beast of burden!”

Brot’ân’duivé had hardly believed that an anmaglâhk of Osha’s limited status would defy him, but he kept his patience.

“It has been too long since I received the stone!” he almost snapped. “This one will carry you more swiftly than you can run. It has agreed to this.... Now get on.”

Brot’ân’duivé took out the smooth message stone and thrust it out at Osha.

Osha stared in horror between the stone and the listener. The clhuassas swung its head toward him and took a step. Osha stiffened. When the creature snorted into his face, his eyes rolled as if he might faint.

“This is its choice,” Brot’ân’duivé said quietly.

Osha swallowed hard and reached out to take the stone. Turning his head away in resignation, he stepped in carefully at the creature’s side. He slowly reached up to grasp its neck. Even as tall as he was, he had to jump to pull himself up and swing his leg over. Still afraid to touch it, he quickly snatched his hands back.

“You had best hang on,” Brot’ân’duivé warned. “When you reach the cavern of the Chein’âs, cast the stone over the precipice’s edge into the red light rising from below ... and they will come.”

Now that they were about to part, and Osha would do as required of him, Brot’ân’duivé stepped closer. He had no notion of what to say, so he fell back on all he had left.

“In silence and in shadow.”

Osha would not look at him, as if the axiom of the Anmaglâhk no longer had meaning. The clhuassas lunged without warning, and Osha grabbed its neck as it raced off through the trees.

Both were quickly gone from sight, and Brot’ân’duivé turned away.

He did not know the whole purpose that Urhkarasiférin had been given by Most Aged Father. Now that the other greimasg’äh had been exposed, there was also no knowing what he would do. It was three days back to the enclave, and Urhkarasiférin might be nearly a quarter day ahead of him.

Brot’ân’duivé broke into a run through the forest.

Brot’ân’duivé started slightly at a soft knock on his door in the guild’s annex.

“Greimasg’äh?” Leanâlhâm called softly from outside. “Dinner is served. Will you come down?”

He paused before answering, “Yes,” and turned from the window for the door.

Brot’ân’duivé tried—and failed—to forget all he had asked of Osha, the oaths he had broken, and the far worse things he had done to save his people.